Dean Johnson, a Lutheran pastor and a former Republican leader of the state Senate, said he prayed before returning a reporter’s phone call to find strength to say something nice about his former colleague. He found no such inspiration.

“I don’t think I ever served with anybody who I mistrusted more, from either side of the aisle,” said Johnson, now a member of the University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents. “She would tell you one thing and do another. She’s not a team player.”

I guess Pastor Johnson isn’t familiar with the widely-embraced variation on Thumper’s Rule that says: If you can’t say something nice…ask to say it anonymously.

A former Bachmann colleague who requested anonymity because he couldn’t think of something nice to say about her

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